It also marks approximately the 2 year anniversary of collecting the Mazda MX6's which have bravely given themselves to the cause and to this day, one still sits happily in my garden!
This also means my planned 5-ish month engine swap/rebuild has tipped over the 1 year mark. Wow. So whilst feeling proud of my achievements 3 years ago, I am a little depressed that the time has flown by and the magical beginners luck appears to have worn off....I'm sure that is short lived though, come see why..............
Wiring Update...again
Right, moving swiftly on, we left off in June 2016 apparently with my new loom from RapidFit beginning to find its new home. The main aim of the rapid fit was to replace the existing MX5 loom that had been stuffed into the car, unmodified and wrapped in orange tape (gotta keep the colour scheme going, right?). As previously mentioned, this resulted in a highly visible chunk of orange electrical tape and scruffy looking finish. I'm just glad I never had any electrical gremlins to trace!
For approx £200 this RapidFit loom eliminated a large chunk of the unnecessary circuits and meant I could realistically look at making the wiring neat and tidy. However that will only happen once everything is working correctly as it should....until then...organised chaos! Taking a while so don't hold your breath!Throttle Bodies
With the exhausts already sorted from the Stoneleigh push, I reverted back to my original plan of using a pair of Triumph T595 throttle bodies. The reason for selecting these.....well, it's what Claire knew well and worked for her so why change it? Unfortunately Claire was too busy to make me one of her sets so I set about doing it myself.
This helped give me a bit of a break away from the car electrics as it was something I could take with my back to my parents house one weekend.They left me to dog sit so I thought I'd assemble the throttle bodies whilst they were out. Just don't make a mess......whooops!
Not gonna lie, the help was a bit naff. Had no idea what to do and ended up sleeping on the job!
The finished product reused a fuel rail from a Vauxhaul Omega 3.0 V6. This is what the injectors came from and with new O-rings, the injectors fitted perfectly into the Triumph slots. Just need to add some hose and rail clamps and we're good to go!
And if by magic......
You can also see I opted to reuse the 3 long HT leads from the 2 engines as having 3 correct and 3 sticking out (due to lengths of the leads) just looked silly. At least this was intentional silliness. I've had to do this as going from distributor to EDIS means half the HT leads don't reach and the ones that do used to contend with the intake manifold, hence the height. I kinda like it though....but should probably sort out some new custom leads soon when funds allow.
Despite individual cones being power killers (and reminded of that every single time by at least 1 person whenever a post goes on Facebook) I quite like the look regardless of the few BHP lost. Its a massive step up already so I'm in no rush to unleash the full potential from day 1. It has been a couple years so will want to ease back into this animal!
New Seats!
Another upgrade to the car was my decision to buy new seats. I wanted to try the GRP style seats with past experience of them (albeit brief test in a stationary car) and finding them reasonably comfy - or at least comfier than I was expecting!
My decision was made for me one day when I took a seat on the driveway, in the sun, to admire the car coming together and take a well earned refreshment break. I was planning to refit the old seats however as I placed myself into it and sat back, I just kept going! At first I thought they were very unstable without the backs supported or bolted to the floor! Turns out the frame had snapped and the seat literally went back flat. I'm only 11 stone at best so I don't believe I've abused them enough to cause the failure. Sadly, GBS's default response was the warranty had expired and basically had no interest about potential safety issues or investigating! To me it was pretty simple. The frame was cheap and not up to scratch. Glad I didn't find out in a crash or mid corner!
Anyway, importantly, I didn't spill my beer and it unfortunately forced my hand to buy these lovely Carbon Fibre seats, I was clearly devastated by the loss.....
Anyway, importantly, I didn't spill my beer and it unfortunately forced my hand to buy these lovely Carbon Fibre seats, I was clearly devastated by the loss.....
Add the customary colour theme....
And customary trial fit.
Straight away I have a major issue.....I'm sat far too low now and my eye line is level with the top of the steering wheel. Not an ideal driving position if I'm honest! To fix this, I have mounted the seats on some 50mm box section to raise me back up. With the addition of some neoprene foam stuff on the seats (more for insulation than comfort I hear) I have gained the necessary height to feel comfortable seeing over the bonnet and able to drive the car. Looks like I don't need that lowered floor after all now........
So I think that is about a decent place to stop. Its been a whirlwind of a catch up with many things going on all over the place and trying to find the time to write up this stuff. Don't worry fans, I'm still here and still determined to get this finished......one day....
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